(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

“2024 presents great opportunities for Pennsylvania.”

Those were the words of Pennsylvania State Representative Josh Kail (R-Beaver/Washington) that kicked off an announcement made Friday that Kail–the Chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee–will be hosting a pair of hearings regarding the opportunities for rural Pennsylvania and the obstacles that will be approached along the way.

The first meeting will take place on Tuesday, January 16 at the Bailey Ballroom at the Bailey Building in Huntingdon, PA, which will focus on broadband expansion in rural communities. The meeting, beginning at noon, will be co-hosted with Rep. Rich Irvin (R-Huntingdon/Franklin) along with other local speakers.

The second meeting will take place the next day, Wednesday, January 17, at the Penn Northwest Development Corp building in Hermitage at 9:00 AM. The meeting will be co-hosted with Mercer County Rep. Parke Wentling and other Committee members to focus on strengthening the workforce of rural communities across Pennsylvania.

Both meetings will be livestreamed on the Policy Committee’s website, and further details can be found at Rep. Kail’s website.

NEW YORK (AP) — Joyce Randolph, a veteran stage and television actor whose role as the savvy Trixie Norton on “The Honeymooners” provided the perfect foil to her dimwitted TV husband, has died. She was 99.

Randolph died of natural causes Saturday night at her home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, her son Randolph Charles told The Associated Press Sunday.

She was the last surviving main character of the beloved comedy from television’s golden age of the 1950s.

“The Honeymooners” was an affectionate look at Brooklyn tenement life, based in part on star Jackie Gleason’s childhood. Gleason played the blustering bus driver Ralph Kramden. Audrey Meadows was his wisecracking, strong-willed wife Alice, and Art Carney the cheerful sewer worker Ed Norton. Alice and Trixie often found themselves commiserating over their husbands’ various follies and mishaps, whether unknowingly marketing dogfood as a popular snack or trying in vain to resist a rent hike, or freezing in the winter as their heat is shut off.

Randolph would later cite a handful of favorite episodes, including one in which Ed is sleepwalking.

“And Carney calls out, ‘Thelma?!’ He never knew his wife’s real name,” she later told the Television Academy Foundation.

Originating in 1950 as a recurring skit on Gleason’s variety show, “Cavalcade of Stars,” “The Honeymooners” still ranks among the all-time favorites of television comedy. The show grew in popularity after Gleason switched networks with “The Jackie Gleason Show.” Later, for one season in 1955-56, it became a full-fledged series.

Those 39 episodes became a staple of syndicated programming aired all over the country and beyond.

In an interview with The New York Times in January 2007, Randolph said she received no compensation in residuals for those 39 episodes. She said she finally began getting royalties with the discovery of “lost” episodes from the variety hours.

After five years as a member of Gleason’s on-the-air repertory company, Randolph virtually retired, opting to focus full-time on marriage and motherhood.

“I didn’t miss a thing by not working all the time,” she said. “I didn’t want a nanny raising (my) wonderful son.”

But decades after leaving the show, Randolph still had many admirers and received dozens of letters a week. She was a regular into her 80s at the downstairs bar at Sardi’s, where she liked to sip her favorite White Cadillac concoction — Dewar’s and milk — and chat with patrons who recognized her from a portrait of the sitcom’s four characters over the bar.

Randolph said the show’s impact on television viewers didn’t dawn on her until the early 1980s.

“One year while (my son) was in college at Yale, he came home and said, ’Did you know that guys and girls come up to me and ask, ‘Is your mom really Trixie?’” she told The San Antonio Express in 2000. “I guess he hadn’t paid much attention before then.”

Earlier, she had lamented that playing Trixie limited her career.

“For years after that role, directors would say: ‘No, we can’t use her. She’s too well-known as Trixie,’” Randolph told the Orlando Sentinel in 1993.

Gleason died in 1987 at age 71, followed by Meadows in 1996 and Carney in 2003. Gleason had revived “The Honeymooners” in the 1960s, with Jane Kean as Trixie.

Randolph was born Joyce Sirola in Detroit in 1924, and was around 19 when she joined a road company of “Stage Door.” From there she went to New York and performed in a number of Broadway shows.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, she was seen often on TV, appearing with such stars as Eddie Cantor, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Danny Thomas and Fred Allen.

Randolph met Gleason for the first time when she did a Clorets commercial on “Cavalcade of Stars,” and The Great One took a liking to her; she didn’t even have an agent at the time.

Randolph spent her retirement going to Broadway openings and fundraisers, being active with the U.S.O. and visiting other favorite Manhattan haunts, among them Angus, Chez Josephine and the Lambs Club.

Her husband, Richard Lincoln, a wealthy marketing executive who died in 1997, served as president at the Lambs, a theatrical club, and she reigned as “first lady.” They had one son, Charles.

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)
(Photo/AP)

The Penguins will be hosting the Seattle Kraken at 1:00 PM this afternoon. Coverage on Beaver County Radio will begin with pre-game at 12:30 PM.

The game was originally scheduled for 6:00 PM tonight but was rescheduled due to the moving of the Steelers/Bills NFL playoff game to 4:30 PM Monday afternoon.

The Penguins have lost two consecutive games in overtime to Vancouver and Carolina, the latter of which was a 3-2 loss to the Hurricanes on Saturday evening. Meanwhile, the Kraken have won nine consecutive games, including a 7-4 win in their last game at Columbus on Saturday.

Seattle currently has 47 points (19-14-9), sitting in 5th place in the Metropolitan Division. The Penguins are at 46 points (20-15-6) and currently are tied for 6th place in the Metropolitan Division with the Washington Capitals.

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

State police have released information in regards to an online harassment investigation in Hanover Township.

In a press release, police say 46-year-old Jamie Rice of Hanover Township was responding to a Facebook Messenger message about giving away a dog, and the suspect replied with agitated language that led Rice to believe that there could be conflict. Rice blocked the unnamed suspect with no further contact and reported the incident to state police.

Additional details have not been provided.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Logan Eschrich came to Buffalo to witness the snowstorm, and he stayed for the shoveling on Sunday.

Once the professional storm chaser saw the Buffalo Bills invite fans to help dig out a snow-filled Highmark Stadium for their delayed playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, now scheduled for Monday, Eschrich couldn’t resist.

Sniffling and shivering from the cold, Eschrich detailed the seemingly impossible task he and the estimated 85-person shovel crew faced while being compensated $20 an hour. Winds whipped at 30 mph (48 kph), and snow was falling at a rate of 2 inches (5 centimeters) per hour at what was supposed to be the game’s 1 p.m. EST kickoff, which has been pushed back to Monday at 4:30 p.m.

“It would have been absolutely impossible (to play). We could barely see the next row down from us. And unfortunately, it’s still that way,” Eschrich told The Associated Press by phone in the mid-afternoon. “We made progress shoveling, but not much at all.”

He said bleacher seats were entirely buried by snow, adding that it was treacherous to travel the mere two blocks to the stadium from where he camped overnight.

“I’m very happy they put the travel ban into effect,” said Eschrich, who works for Live Storms Media, and made the 16-hour trip north from Alabama, where he had planned to get video of tornadoes. “Nobody should be out here.”

The Buffalo region, which includes the Bills’ home in Orchard Park, was mostly at a standstill, with a travel ban in place due to a dangerous lake-effect storm that began on Saturday and was expected to last through Sunday night.

The storm was projected to dump up between 1 and 3 feet of snow, with the heaviest accumulation around Orchard Park.

With the storm’s brunt expected to wane by Sunday night, the National Weather Service’s forecast for Monday called for a chance of snow showers in the morning and a high of 19 degrees Fahrenheit (minus-7 Celsius), but with strong wind making it feel like minus-5 (minus-21).

On Sunday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she expected the game to kick off as scheduled, with the end of the storm allowing time for roads and the stadium to be cleared of snow. A day earlier, Hochul and the NFL cited public safety concerns as the reason to push the game back to Monday.

Bills players and staff spent Sunday at home. The Steelers arrived Sunday afternoon with travel restrictions having been lifted at Buffalo Niagara International Airport and northern parts of Erie County.

Former Bills center Eric Wood recalled his first time experiencing a lake-effect storm in Buffalo in November 2014, which has since been dubbed “Snowvember.” The storm dumped nearly 7 feet (2.1 meters) of snow on Orchard Park over a four-day stretch and led to Buffalo’s home game against the New York Jets being moved to Detroit.

Wood was among seven Bills players in his neighborhood who had to be picked up by snowmobile and transported to the team’s facility before being bused to the airport.

“The whiteout conditions are like nothing I had ever experienced,” said Wood, who’s from Cincinnati. “Until you experience this snow and understand its effect, it’s hard to appreciate what can truly happen in such a short amount of time, and often without notice.”

Wood’s next experience with lake-effect snow happened in December 2017, when a storm hit an hour before kickoff and caused whiteout conditions inside the stadium during a game against Indianapolis. Stadium crews were unable to keep up with the falling snow, using blowers to uncover the yard lines.

Their field was so blanketed by snow that Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri lost his footing and missed a 43-yard field-goal attempt as time expired, and Buffalo won 13-7 in overtime on LeSean McCoy’s 21-yard touchdown run. Bills players celebrated by making snow angels and throwing snowballs.

“Fans had a ton of fun watching us slip and slide over the field, but it wasn’t always fun to play in, not being able to move, and you’re freezing and all that,” Wood recalled with a laugh.

Today, it’s a cherished memory for Wood, in part because the win helped the Bills snap a 17-season playoff drought.

Former Bills special teams star Steve Tasker said the wintry conditions usually favor the home team.

“It’s not the being able to practice in the bad stuff that makes you ready to play on days like that, it’s living in it that makes you ready,” Tasker said. “Those guys get off the plane from say, Miami or Houston, and it just slaps you in the face.”

Tasker, however, noted the Steelers are accustomed to playing in the cold, which should even out any advantages on Monday.

One thing is certain for Tasker who, like Wood, is part of the Bills’ radio broadcast team. Fun as it was playing in the elements, he’s going to enjoy his spot in the warm comfort of the radio booth.

“I’m very happy where I’m at,” Tasker said, laughing. “I’m not going to trade it for anything.”

Story by Curtis Walsh – Beaver County Radio. Published January 14, 2024 9:43 P.M.

(Beaver Falls, Pa) With little information being provided by authorities, community members are wondering if an alleged killer could be on the loose in Beaver County. A woman who was identified as Rebecca Miller, 41, of Beaver Falls was found dead Thursday on a walking trail near the campus of Geneva College. Sources say Miller suffered multiple stab wounds and is being considered a victim of homicide, but an exact cause of death has not yet been released by authorities.

Beaver County Radio spoke to the roommate of Miller, who says they were living at Cornerstone Recovery and Supports in Beaver Falls, which specializes in mental health support and housing services. She says Miller signed out of the facility on Sunday, and never returned. Miller had mentioned to her that she was going on a walk with a friend but didn’t say much else other than it was a man.

Miller worked at Crop and Kettle in New Brighton, where her roommate was a student. She says classes were let out early Thursday and cancelled for Friday. With the change in class schedule, and Miller still not home, she said “I knew something happened”.

The roommate says police and management of the living facility spoke to the residents, but none of them were informed of exactly what happened. She says she had to read the news online to learn of her former roommate’s fate. She said, “I was shocked”, and “I don’t feel safe to go out at night”.

Currently there is no word from Police or authorities on the state of the investigation. They have not released any update on whether or not they have made any arrests or identified any suspects in the alleged homicide. A press release issued on Thursday from Beaver Falls Police Chief David Johnson and District Attorney Nate Bible stated they do not “believe there is danger to residents or the community”.

Read our previous coverage of this story here: https://beavercountyradio.com/news/womans-body-found-on-walking-trail-in-beaver-falls-little-information-available/

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

The section of Interstate 376 eastbound between Exit 36 (Brighton Township) and Exit 31 (Route 51/Chippewa Township) will be reduced to a single lane of traffic from 12:01 AM to 4:00 AM on Sunday, January 14.

PennDOT District 11 made the announcement early Friday morning, stating that crews from Verizon will install new facilities upgrades along two utility poles in the area. PennDOT is not involved with the installations, which will occur Sunday morning if weather permits.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Pirates avoided arbitration with All-Star closer David Bednar and All-Star pitcher Mitch Keller by agreeing to one-year deals Thursday ahead of the exchange of proposed salaries.

Bednar, an All-Star in each of the last two seasons, will get $4.51 million. He went 3-3 with 39 saves and a 2.00 ERA last season.

Keller, an All-Star in 2023 while going 13-9 with a 4.21 ERA, will earn $5.442,500.

Pittsburgh also reached agreements with first baseman Connor Joe at $2,125,000 and outfielder Edward Olivares at $1.35 million. Olivares was acquired in a trade with Kansas City last month.

On Wednesday, the Pirates came to terms with right-handed pitcher JT Brubaker on a one-year deal worth $2,275,000. Brubaker, Pittsburgh’s opening-day starter in 2022, Brubaker missed all of last season after Tommy John surgery last April.

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

A 20-year-old New Castle woman is being charged with criminal homicide and additional charges in the death of her one-year-old Daughter last June.

The charges against Aleisia Owens were filed by Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry on Thursday following an investigation led by the New Castle Police Department, which concluded that the death of Owens’ daughter was a homicide following an autopsy by the Medical examiner.

Owens is additionally charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault of a child, endangering the welfare of a child, and other offenses. She was denied bail due to the homicide charge.